Running a UK charity: the step-by-step guide

Every duty, deadline and decision involved in starting and running a charity in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland — set out in the order you actually meet them.

16 steps across 10 parts. Every one of them ends with something you did not have before.

This guide is written for the person who has just been made a trustee, or who is about to register a charity, and has found that the official guidance assumes you already understand what it is telling you.

It follows the life of an organisation rather than the structure of the law. Each part is a sequence of steps in the order you meet them, and every step ends with something that exists afterwards and did not before — a document filed, an account opened, a policy adopted, a decision recorded and defensible.

Start wherever you are. If you are at the beginning, start at part one. If you are three years in and staring at an annual return that is nearly due, go straight to reporting.

  1. Starting a charity

    From deciding whether a charity is the right vehicle to a registered organisation with a bank account.

    2 steps

  2. Governance and trustees

    What trustees must do, how decisions are made and recorded, and the policies you actually need.

    1 step

  3. Money and accounting

    Bookkeeping, reserves, which accounts you must prepare and who has to check them.

    3 steps

  4. Reporting and compliance

    The annual cycle: what to file, with whom, by when — and what to do when something goes wrong.

    9 steps

  5. Funding and fundraising

    Finding funders, writing applications, and the rules on every other way charities raise money.

    In progress

  6. Tax and Gift Aid

    HMRC recognition, Gift Aid, VAT and the reliefs charities can and cannot claim.

    In progress

  7. People

    Volunteers, employing staff, and safeguarding — the highest-risk area for most charities.

    In progress

  8. Running the organisation

    Data protection, digital, premises, insurance, risk and working with others.

    1 step

  9. Changing and closing

    Amending your purposes, converting, merging, and closing down properly.

    In progress

  10. Impact and evaluation

    Theory of change, outcomes, and reporting what actually happened to funders.

    In progress

Every number has a source

Thresholds, deadlines and fees are not typed into the text. They are held once, with the legislation or regulator page they come from, and pulled into every page that needs them. Change the law and the whole guide moves at once.

Three jurisdictions, said out loud

England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different regulators, different thresholds and sometimes different law. Each step says which of the three it applies to, at the top, before anything else.

We say where we stop

Some of this needs a solicitor or an accountant, and pretending otherwise would be worse than useless. Those steps set out what the law requires, then name the point at which you need someone — and where to find free help first.